Silence Of The Hams

interview her, she’d have turned herself in pretty soon. She was really in a state and so was her husband.“
    “You believe her?“ Jane asked.
    He cocked an eyebrow. “Provisionally. Somewhat. We’ll see.“
    “Three qualifiers. Not good,“ Jane said with a smile.
    “She is the last person who admits to having seen the victim alive. She could be an awfully good actress.“
    “But she wouldn’t have bothered to try an act on me,“ Jane said.
    “Sure she would,“ Mel said. “For practice, if nothing else. And remember, you told me she was asking you about me and about the investigation. She must have known you’d tell me about it.“
    “You didn’t say that’s why—“
    “No,“ Mel said. “I told her someone leaving the retirement party had described seeing a woman who looked like her go into Weyrich’s apartment. I hadn’t even gotten the words out when she went to pieces and spilled the whole story.“
    “If you believed her, where would that leave you?“ Shelley asked. “Have you learned anything else?“
    “As a matter of fact, we have. But it’s not much help yet,“ Mel said. “One of Emma’s neighbors saw her come out of her apartment Friday night pretty late. Around eleven. In her jogging gear, but carrying something that jingled on one hand—they thought it was a set of car keys—and a file folder in the other. Or several file folders.“
    “Friday night,“ Jane said. “The night of the high school graduation and party. That sounds like she made at least one house call with her little scheme.“
    “It sure does,“ Shelley said, “but why a jogging outfit?“
    “Maybe she was doing two entirely different things,“ Jane said. “Dropping in on someone for a spot of blackmail and then going jogging. Don’t a lot of people go somewhere to jog instead of just trotting around their own block? I’m always seeing _ people at that track that runs around the perimeter of the park who don’t live adjacent to it.“
    “Or maybe she was doing two errands at the same time,“ Shelley said.
    “What do you mean?“
    “Maybe she was meeting another jogger,“ Shelley went on. “Either someone she regularly saw wherever she jogged. Or somebody she told to meet her there.“
    “Why would she risk being overheard?“ Jane asked.
    “I don’t know,“ Shelley said. “Maybe it was someone she was at least slightly afraid to be alone with. Someone who might have agreed to her demands and then came back Saturday afternoon and killed her.”
    Jane shivered.
    “Where were the suspects on Friday night, Mel?“ Shelley asked. “Or have you had time to find out yet?”
    Mel glared at her. “Suspects?“ he asked, a slightly shrill note in his voice. “Just which suspects are those? Depending on how you look at it, I have either no suspects or a whole city full of them.“
    “Oh, right,“ Shelley said. “All the people with files that are missing.“
    “Right,“ Mel agreed grimly. “The only suspects as such are Jane, who isn’t one really because her file was the one left behind, and she was with me Friday night, and LeAnne Doherty. She, by the way, was at a family party and claims at least fourteen relatives will swear that neither she nor her husband ever left the house Friday night. On top of which, there’s absolutely no reason to think whoever Weyrich might have met Friday night is the same person who killed her. In fact, there’s only one person that I know of so far in this whole mess who absolutely couldn’t have killed Emma Weyrich.“
    “Who’s that?“ Jane asked.
    “Sarah Baker.“
    “Sarah?“ Shelley exclaimed. “Why would Sarah want to kill anyone?“
    “I didn’t say she had any reason to—“
    “Mel, don’t grit your teeth that way,“ Jane said. “Have another cookie.“
    “Sorry. I only meant that, of all the people at the deli opening and those who were known to have had dealings with Robert Stonecipher—which is the best I can do in the way of a suspect list—Sarah Baker is the only one with an unbreakable alibi.“
    “Because she was in the hospital, right?“ Jane said. “And she couldn’t have sneaked out.“
    “It’s a measure of my desperation that I even checked on that,“ Mel admitted. “No, she was in bed all afternoon. There was another patient in the room, in the bed closest to the door, who had company all afternoon. Sarah Baker couldn’t have left the room without being seen.“
    “We were talking about the money